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Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Berk2k14

First of all, thank you for truckload of empathy you delivered after my last post. I was seriously feeling a bit over the edge and you tipped me back. Bless you all!! In light of that, I thought I might take this moment while a fan blasts in my face and while my children are engrossed in episode of 867 of Liberty Kids/school ($8 for the entire series, by the way...
) to write about the ways I've been making my own life insane. Or just one way, actually, in the form of a sporatic turn around trip to Berkeley to see The Head and The Heart headline The Greek. It's only right that all my complaining about the craziness of life be understood alongside me doing things like this. On purpose. What I'm trying to say is don't feel sorry for me all the way, it's my own damn fault.

Anyway, Berkeley.
(via grainy iPhone pics)

We have seen Kenny play a lot (side note: if you didn't know, my little squirt brother is in a band called The Head and The Heart. More here and here.) But we always see him play in Los Angeles where he is usually swarmed by old friends and family and us. Those nights are always a rushy blur of super fun and amazing, and we never take our kids because a. it's always a super late night and b. it just sounds tedious and terrible and we don't want to. That is usually the right decision but the sad trade off is that my kids think their uncle makes YouTube videos for a living. They've never gotten to experience how awesome it is to see a person you love dearly walk across a brightly lit stage to the tune of thousands of screaming fans, which (if you've never experienced it) is incredible.

The band is also on the tale end of their tour and we won't get another chance to see them in this scope for a while. Since I am a pushover when it comes to my little brother, he suggested we come to Berkeley and I was like OK.

Kirby had a meeting he couldn't get out of but my parents wanted to come along so the 8 of us loaded up in two cars and headed north to the Bay Area.

We made the drive in about 7 glorious hours filled with not much screaming from baby. After we washed up and put the littles into jammies, we headed to the venue. Kenny met us at will call where we hugged a lot and we picked up our tickets. He made sure we were set and walked us through the gates towards the backstage entrance. Lemme just tell you, babe of a piano player, cruising through the packed ticketing area of his own concert, holding hands with many children... yes.

It was so fun to watch the kids experience the crowds and start to piece together that all of this was because of thier Uncle Kenny's music.

We went to the backstage area and all amazement about Uncle Kenny was quickly overshadowed by the amazement that is free food and beverages, cozy leather couches, and twinkly lights.

As the second band, City and Colour, played, we walked to the side of the stage to watch for a bit. I always love this vantage because you can see the band's view of the crowd, which is pretty mesmerizing. Magic for children and adults.

Finally it was time for Kenny to go on so we found our spot in the crowd and got settled in to watch. And when they walked onstage, and when the crowd roared, I looked over and I saw this.

And I knew it was good that we came.

Mary launched into full party mode the second they started to play and she didn't let up the entire night. Johnny, however, fell asleep two songs in, sitting completely upright with his legs crossed. (True story----> see grainy pic)

The show was amazing. Every once in a while I get hit by waves of gratitude that my brother is in a band whose music I *actually* like. It would be so sad if I thought his music was terrible. But I can fangirl sing every word to every song with the rest of the crowd and I love that. At one point Kenny swung around on his stool and managed to find us in the crowd. When the girls saw him waving at them from the stage, they burst out in excited, frantic waves and high-pitched squeals from our perch near the sound booth. So perfect. By the end of the show everyone was gone but Mary, Peter and I. Johnny and Clemmy were asleep on couches backstage and my mom and Hero eventually got tired and wandered back, too. My dad wanted to watch the encore from the side of the stage, so he left just before the end. The crowd sang every word of Down in the Valley and Mary and I sang along as loud as we could. It was so fun spending the night with my party-baby. Is this accurately describing the overwhelming cuteness that this all was?? I hope so.

Anyway, after the show, I piggy backed her through the crowds towards the backstage entrance. We high-fived every band member and found Uncle Kenny to give him a hug and tell him how perfect it was. The backstage area was totally alive with friends and family now, all eating, drinking and merrying in buzzy-post concert glow. I think my favorite moments were watching Mary and Kenny exploring the empty stage at the end of the night, with the lights still on but the theater empty. I found them standing in the doorway of the backstage opening as the gear was loaded off the stage and it struck me, again, how incredibly proud I am of my little brother, his bandmates, and the music they make. And how grateful I am to be able to share his world with his nieces and nephews, whom he loves so dearly.

Soon, all the others kids + my mom (bless her) were passed out on the couches backstage. Kenny and my dad loaded all the floppy, sleepy babies into our little minivan, parked next to their giant tour bus. We kissed him goodbye and headed to the hotel. I always get super sentimental after we leave Kenny when he is on the road. The night is always such excited blur and when it's over I realize that this is really his life. The nights we can participate feel so unique, but they are just one night out of so many for him. As we drove back down the 5 towards home the next day, he was in the air on the way to Toronto. It reminded me, again, that this wild journey he is on as a gift that is handed to few. I want to watch the whole story if I can.

(I realize how weird this pic is but it's the only bro/sis pic I got! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ )

25 comments:

Awww, that's like the sweetest experience ever! The craziness is worth it for times like those. Families are the coolest- famous family members, like extra super cool. You may be happy to know that Margaret (my kiddo) and I love jamming out to the Head and the Heart pretty much all the time. It's the soundtrack to breakfast as we're both waking up and her one year-old attention span is just long enough to dance to their YouTube videos. Next time they're in Seattle, I will try my best to be there. :)

Awe!! You're such a cool mom to let your kids stay up late and catch a concert that their UNCLE performs in!! So awesome. I'll have to checkout his videos now. :) Glad everyone had fun and that you created a few great memories for the kiddos!

(btw, hopefully my comment doesn't post twice because my first comment magically disappeared when I hit publish and then had to sign in to my acct.)

This is all so cool, but really my favorite part, the part that I am actually a little jealous of, is how close you are with your brother and how much you guys mean to one another. I wish I had that. What a blessing for you, Blythe!

I love how much he loves his nieces and nephews, families are the best. Also, you realize you have ensured your kids' coolness forever, right? They can answer the "what was your first concert" question with "oh, NBD, I was two years old and hanging out backstage at the Greek with my uncle who is an actual ROCKSTAR." Amazing.

^ Totally second the above! Coolness insurance for sure. I saw your bro play back in the day (a few years ago) in Seattle! Would love to see him again. Especially because I now have my own little party baby. :) I love your blog, Blythe!

Hi, I'm semi new to your blog/instagram feed. I have 3 boys of my own..1, 3 and 5. now this will sound vain, shallow and considerably off topic ...How on earth do you look so good! You have the best skin, no bags under your eyes, you're gorgeous! Do you do anything in particular? face cream? drink crazy amounts of water? not drink any booze? vegan? anything!? pleaasseeee because I actually look like I havent sleep in the last 5 years! really...I'm am feeling a bit more like a mummy than a mommy..haha..ok, I took it too far.

Hahaha!!!! You are hilarious. Aaaaannnd no. I drink and even occasionally smoke a cigarette (shhh!) and I have tons of laugh lines and wrinkly fingers and two hairs that I always have to pluck out of my chin. Pictures just don't show details;) you're super flattering though!!

I'm really close with my little brother too and before we both got married and has kids we had lots of adventures together. When I read this, I ache a little for those times when we were just us, hanging. He loves my husband (calls him brother) and we all adore his wife (total sister), but life is not the same as before obvo! Together we used to see close friends in a band and it felt like this--to be behind the scenes of rockstars!

What a beautiful post! I love getting a tiny glimpse of the closeness of you and your brother. Seeing these photos of your kids and the bonds between kids and aunts/uncles fills my heart with such joy. So thankful you get to experience this and express it so beautifully!

I'm new-ish to your blog, but this was just the sweetest post. And I realize I don't know you from Adam, but the pic of your little girl throwin' up the hands for her uncle made me all teary. Great music, great post!